CHAP. XLII.

On Shades.

THOUGH fhades are the weakest and most vapid, yet they are at the fame time, when the light is at a proper distance, and falls properly on the countenance to take the profile accurately, the trueft representation that can be given of man. The weakeft, for it is not pofitive, it is only fomething negative, only the boundary line of half the countenance. The trueft, because it is the immediate expreffion of nature, such as not the ablest painter is capable of drawing by hand after nature. What can be lefs the image of a living man than a shade? Yet how full of fpeech! Little gold, but the pureft.

The fhade contains but one line; no motion light, colour, height, or depth; no eye, ear, noftril, or cheek; but a very small part of the lip; yet how decifively it is fignificant! Drawing and painting, it is probable, originated in fhades. They exprefs, as I have faid, but little, but the little they do exprefs is exact. No art can attain to the truth of the fhade taken with precifion. Let a shade be taken after nature with the greatest accuracy, and with equal accuracy be afterwards reduced upon fine tranfparent oil paper. Let a profile, of the fame fize, be taken, by the greatest mafter, in his happiest moment; then let the two be laid upon each other, and the difference will be immediately evident.

I never found, after repeated experiments, that the best efforts of art could equal nature, either in freedom or in precifion, but that there was always fomething more or lefs than nature. Nature is

3

fharp

fharp and free: whoever ftudies sharpness more than freedom will be hard, and whofoever ftudies freedom more than fharpnefs will become diffuse and indeterminate. I can admire him only, who, equally ftudious of her sharpness and freedom, acquires equal certainty and impartiality.

To attain this, artift, imitator of humanity! firft exercise yourself in drawing fhades; afterwards copy them by hand, and next compare and correct. Without this you will with difficulty difcover the grand fecret of uniting precifion and freedom.

I have collected more phyfiognomonical knowledge from fhades alone than from every other kind of portrait; have improved phyfiognomonical fenfation more by the fight of them than by the contemplation of ever mutable nature. Shades collect the distracted attention, confine it to an outline, and thus render the obfervation more fimple, eafy, and precife. Phyfiognomy has no greater, more incontrovertable certainty of the truth of its object than that imparted by fhade. If the fhade, according to the general fenfe and decifion of all men, can decide fo much concerning character, how much more must the living body, the whole appearance, and action of the man! If the fhade be oracular, the voice of truth, the word of God, what muft the living original be illuminated by the spirit of God!

Hundreds have asked, and hundreds will continue to ask, "What can be expected from mere fhades?" Yet no fhade can be viewed by any one of these hundred, who will not form fome judgment on it, often accurately, more accurately than I could have judged.

In order to make the aftonifhing fignificance of fhades confpicuous, we ought either to compare oppofite characters of men taken in fhade, or, which

may

may be more convincing, to cut out of black paper, or draw, imaginary countenances widely diffimilar. Or, again, when we have acquired fome proficiency in obfervation, to double black paper, and cut two countenances; and, afterwards, by cutting with the fciffars, to make flight alterations, appealing to our eye, or phyfiognomonical feling, at each alteration; or, laftly, only to take various fhades of the fame countenance, and compare them together. Such experiments would aftonifh us, to perceive what great effects are produced by flight alterations.

The common method of taking fhades is accompanied with many inconveniences. It is hardly poffible the perfon drawn should fit fufficiently ftill; the defigner is obliged to change his place, he must approach fo near to the perfon that motion is almoft inevitable, and the defigner is in the most inconvenient pofition; neither are the preparatory fteps every where poffible, nor fimple enough. A feat purposely contrived would be more convenient. The fhade fhould be taken on poft paper, or rather on thin oiled paper, well dried. Let the head and back be fupported by a chair, and the fhade fall on the oil paper behind a clear flat, polifhed glafs. Let the drawer fit behind the glass, holding the frame with his left hand, and, having a fharp black lead pencil, draw with the right. The glafs, in a detached fliding-frame, may be raised or lowered, according to the height of the perfon. The bottom of the glafs frame, being thin, will be best of iron, and should be raised so as to reft fteadily upon the fhoulder. In the center, upon the glafs, fhould be a fmall piece of wood or iron, to which faften a small round cushion, fupported by a fhort pin, scarcely half an inch long, which alfo may be raised or lowered, and against which the perfon drawn may lean.

CHAP.

CHAP. XLIII.

Defcription of Plate VI.

Number 1. MENDELSOHN.

IN the forehead and nofe perfetration and found understanding are evident. The mouth is much more delicate than the mouth of 2,

Number II. SPALDING.

Clear ideas, love of elegance, purity, accuracy of thought and action; does not eafily admit the unnatural. The forehead not fufficiently characteriftic, but fine tafte in the nose.

Number III. ROCHOW.

Has more good fenfe; prompt, accurate perception of truth, and delicacy, than 4: but I fufpect lefs acuteness.

Number IV. MENDELSOHN.

Whoever hefitates concerning the character of this head never can have obferved the forehead.This arch, abftractedly confidered, efpecially in the upper part, has more capacity than Nos. 2 and 3. In the upper outline, alfo, of the under part, underftanding and exquifite penetration cannot be overlooked.

Number V.

One of thofe mafculine profiles which generally pleafe. Conceal the under chin, and an approach to greatnefs is perceptible; except that greater variation in the outline is wanting especially in the nose,

and